Here is a general explanation about how Summer Leagues have worked in the past, and how Chatfield Summer Teams will work starting in 2014. The goal is to keep as many serious ball players at Chatfield as possible. How? Make sure we are offering competitive play at the highest level. Similar to "club" teams that have, in the past, included teams like Slammers, Hit Streak, Diamond Club, Team Colorado etc. Most play in what is called the "Connie Mack" league.

BASICS OF SUMMER LEAGUE

8th Grade Season (summer before their Freshmen year)SPRING SEASON
· Players typically play through a youth organization – like South Jeffco
· This season usually runs from March until mid-May (shorter than 8-13 YR OLD seasons that run through July)

SUMMER SEASON
· Scenario 1 – Some 8th grade teams stay together through the summer (typically the Club teams); if you do this – you are not involved with the High School

· Scenario 2 – Chatfield will host tryouts for ALL summer teams around the end of May (after the Varsity season completes – date is TBD as it is dependent on how far the Varsity goes in the State playoffs)

DETAILS FOR THE 2014 PROGRAM WILL BE AVAILABLE THE WEEK OF 4/21/14..HERE IS AN OVERVIEW but details might change slightly...

IN THE PAST YEARS, Chatfield has created 3-4 teams that play High School LEGION Ball (Legion A, Legion B, Legion C). Typically this has involved about 35-40 league games around 3 tournaments (usually local). The season starts June 1st and runs through the end of July. Players that played in this included incoming Freshmen through upcoming Seniors (those who were Juniors during the current Spring Season). What often happened was that there would be a good number of Chatfield players, usually upper classmen, that would opt to play for a Club team in order to play a higher level of competition and to have more travel tournaments in order to be “seen” by scouts.

GOING FORWARD, Chatfield plans to have a couple of optionsOption 1 – Chatfield will put teams/players in the highest competitive divisions – a team at 17U and at 15U – to have an option to keep the kids that want the “Club” experience (this is referred to as the Connie Mack league). This will model what the past Club players have seen with higher level of competition as well as travel tournaments. CSH Tryouts (at the end of May) will determine who will make these teams. Typically the 17U team will include the current Juniors that were on Varsity as well as some of the Sophomores/Freshmen that were on JV. The 15U team will typically include the current Freshmen as well as the current 8th graders that are next year’s incoming Freshmen. It is expected that Chatfield will be able to offer this at a much lower cost than the Club option – and still play the same competition and tournaments.

Option 2 – for those who do not make the Option 1 teams through tryouts will still have an option via Chatfield that models the Legion route.